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This is the most splendid of news. If you don’t know Hero Academy, it’s a turn-based, two-player tactical game from the chaps behind Orcs Must Die and if you are now wondering why you haven’t heard of it, it’s because it’s an iOS game. Except on August 8th it’ll also be a PC game, as it’s coming to Steam and allowing cross-platform play. Opponents are played asynchronously, so you take your turn, inform your opponent and wait for a response. This means you can play loads of games at the same time and with its chessy appeal, you’ll probably want to. I shall welcome it to my PC with a smile and, oh look, Valve have provided an exclusive team. Trailer below.

It looks like they’re following the iOS route of having every team be purchasable, with new ones added on occasion, because we’re told that buying an expansion will unlock “a unique cosmetic item” in Team Fortress 2. Maybe some kind of belt or trouser.

It’s probably much easier for a Windows/iOS shop to port a game to Windows than it is to get all the necessary expertise and equipment to properly port a game to Android. I imagine a lot of the reasoning in this interview with Days of Wonder, the publishers of Ticket to Ride, applies to Robot Entertainment as well. They just ported Ticket to Ride to Steam before creating an Android version, just like Hero Academy.

This game is a really well balanced turn based strategy game. Don’t overlook it because it came from a phone.

It really depends on what you want to do.
If Unity is adapted to your gameplay/art style, then I think it is definitely the way to go since it will allow you to do Android/iOS/PC. I am listing Android first because you will want to launch on this platform first since the PlayStore will allow you to tweak your game very efficiently with the reports you get from the players & the data you are collecting (like for example if you discover that a lot of people die a dozen of times in level 3, then you know that something is wrong with it).

I don’t like the cutesy-zynga-milkyourwallet-wink-wink kind of mobile gaming, but I’ve discovered few titles that I’d really like to see on PC. Radiant Defense, Robotek, Spaced Away… and all the space shooters that have returned to mobiles.

I don’t know why Valve hasn’t got an Appstore for these games already. Waiting for Microsoft Windows 8 Metro to fill that gap? Strange.

Yeah, it does unfortunately. Since I have no interest in playing against people online, a game that only features online play is… well, not something I want to spend money or time on.

It’s sad, because I can’t imagine that there are any technical reasons for it not to support local multiplayer. I mean, I’d obviously want single player too, but I get that writing an AI and missions would be a lot more work. But the lack of offline multiplayer is probably just because it doesn’t fit with their business model.

It wouldn’t work as hotseat because you have a hand that you play from, and not knowing what your opponent will play is a big part of the strategy. They’re adding some single player challenges in the current iOS version, too.

I noticed that this game seems very similar to Scrolls. What is an example of a game like this where the units available aren’t random? I’d like to play something where maybe every unit has a cost, and you can build your side of the board however you choose… with many cheap units or fewer strong units.
I’d like a good turn-based strategy game, but the random element seems like it make strategy less interesting.